Masterpiece
by Salem Svartulv
Summary: Blake was a lonely artist looking for her long lost muse on a July afternoon... And she found it. Yang was a silent enigma that had crossed her path with an artist by accident and stole her heart without even knowing. .:: Bumbleby ::.:: College AU ::.
1. Chapter 1 Muse

**Disclaimer:** RWBY and all its characters belong to Rooster Teeth, and this story has no more objetive than entertain

 _So... I was really trying to focus on writing a lot of other things I need to finish, but inspiration is always stubborn and unpredictable and I just happened to come across a prompt about a college/modern AU at Tumblr... Well, let's just say that I couldn't get this idea out of my head for days, so I ended up going for it yesterday when I found myself waking a little too early xD_

 _The prompt itself is the next one: 1. College/Modern Au - Yang is the selectively mute enigma that loves to skip rocks at a pond alone, sometimes with her sister Ruby. Blake is an art student that would sometimes watch, or sketch, her crush from a far skipping rocks, wanting nothing more than to talk to her. Not knowing Yang is mute or Ruby is her sister._

 _It just was too good to let it go and I had to try it xD I hope you like It ;) for now I can just confirm Bumbleby as the main pairing, but just a heads up that Prismatic ponytails, Nuts N Dolts, Renora & Arkos are some of the pretty likely to appear as the story unfolds ;)_

* * *

 **Muse**

She vaguely remembered the time when she loved to draw and paint. It hadn't been so long ago, but it still felt like a lifetime away. The memories of her afternoons walking around her childhood and early teenagehood with a sketchbook under her arm, where any quiet moment was perfect to let her inspiration run wild with either familiar faces and sceneries or worlds came to life from her own imagination.

Ilia had been the center of so many of those artworks when they were younger, her changing colors making her perfect for anything the artist had in mind. Then, _Adam_ had come into the picture with her... And then instead of her. And then there had been no more pictures, before she even had time to think about it.

The black-haired girl shook her head, the black bow on her hair twitching as her cat ears tried to flatten back at the path her brain had chosen to follow. Her right hand closed tightly around the art suplies she had made herself carry that day, barely a couple drawing pencils and a small sharpener, and she looked around searching for a spot to sit on that beautiful park.

She finally decided for a small hill she could spot not too far from where she was standing. It was a perfect high point to see around and hopefully find something that catched her eye enough to awake her artistic desires again. A rather big mahogany tree gave enough shelter from the hot July sun, and when she laid her back against the trunk she pleasingly noted she had a perfect sight of the greenish-blue pond that had catched her eye when she had walked by the day before.

With a content sigh she opened the sketchbook and laid it on her knees, selecting a pencil and leaving the rest of her suplies on the grass by her side, and took a long sight of the landscape.

* * *

More than one hour later, the sketchbook was still as empty and new as she had bought it around three weeks ago. Her calm and relaxed smile had merged into what was more of a frustrated grimace, and her amber eyes were glued to her unmoving hand, feeling angry at herself.

She had nothing, not even a glimpse of inspiration, not even the will to draw a single line and see where that could take her. With a defeated groan, she left her hand fall at her side a stared to the blue sky.

It used to be _so_ _easy._ And it felt so unfair that It wasn't anymore, but what could she do about it? It was just another example of how her life had gone to shit in the past years, and another example of everything _he_ had taken from her.

A small sound distracted her, fortunately. It was like a secuence of almost quiet 'plop', and it didn't take her long to recognize it as the splash of something small breaking the surface of the water.

Her amber eyes moved towards the pond, searching for the source of the noise, and suddenly she felt like the air had been stolen right from inside her lungs. For long seconds she couldn't breath, and she couldn't move, or even think... And she didn't care.

Breathing could have broken the magic of the moment that she definitely wanted to last as much as possible. Moving could have caused the divine creature she was looking at to notice her, and possibly get scared. And thinking would probably make her do something stupid and impulsive, like make herself be seen or even try to cross the space between them and talk to her.

So no, it was probably for the best that all she could do was stare, and enjoy the view. The girl was beautiful like the most impressive work of art. She looked tall and had the perfect curves. Her skin, very much in plain sight with the orange tank top and brown shorts she was wearing, looked absolutely flawless. Her smile was bright And wide, her stance relaxed as she threw another rock at the water, making it bounce five times before drowning. And her hair... Her hair was of the most amazing shade of blonde she had ever seen. It didn't even felt right to call it blonde, or golden, because it was so much more amazing than any of those colors. It was like her hair was the sun itself, It glowed like a warm fire, like there were long fire ribbons falling over her strong shoulders, perfectly framing her silhouette.

The black-haired girl wondered if she would be capable to capture that beautiful glow even with the best art supplies —, those she could only dream about buying —, and the finest techniques.

She knew that the answer was probably no, but she wanted to try anyways.

Without even thinking she looked at her side and took a pencil. She looked back at the sunshine beauty, trying to take everything she could of her before starting to sketch a basic outline, and didn't even stopped to think about the fact that drawing her was easy, and felt like just the right thing to do.

* * *

Time passed in silence apart from the splashing of the rocks. The sky had started to turn orange above them, and the simple sketch had evolved into a full picture.

The edge of the water full of reeds, and she had taken her time drawing the waves in the water as a rock bounced on its surface. But the center of the picture was the girl, and most of her time had been used on trying to get the exact curve of her nose, and the way her long hair curled at the tips and how her smile seemed to add an ethereal light to her face.

The young artist sighed and put down her pencil, feeling pleased as she massaged her tired wrist and looked attentively at her drawing. It was far from perfect —, she had lost practice, her pencils were cheap, and pastel drawing had always been her stronger suit —, but she was happy with the outcome. And most of all, she had drawn something for the first time in months, and she was ecstatic about it.

Smile wide and pleased, she wondered if she should try to say something to the girl. She usually liked to ask for permission before using someone as her model, or in this case practically as her muse, it was only fair. She raised her eyes looking for her, and found out a much different image than what she expected.

The girl wasn't alone anymore. She was sitting on the grass supporting herself on both of her hands resting behind her, looking up at the shorter brunette girl that leaned down to her with her hands on the blonde's shoulders.

Who was she? They looked close, awfully close, as the black-haired girl noted feeling her chest surprisingly heavy. Where they friends? No, It was coser than that. Sisters maybe? She wanted to believe it, but she had to admit they didn't look very much alike... Scratch that, they looked nothing alike. Where they a couple? The brunette looked younger than the blonde, but certainly not enough to rule out the possibility or make it wrong in anyway. Why the thought of It being a possibility made her feel so... Weird? Like she was losing something she hadn't know was vital for her until that very moment.

The two girls smiled fondly at eachother, apparently talking for a little while before the new girl straightened and extended a hand to help the other to stand up. The blonde passed an arm around her partner's shoulders as they turned their backs to the third present at the scene, and started their way to the west entrance of the park, leaving a disheartned black-haired artist behind without knowing.

* * *

 _Tbc~_

 _I hope you liked it! I have around three chapters already planned but just this one written so...yeah, I'll try to get next one done as soon as I can ;)_

 _For now... Thanks for reading and happy holidays everybody!_

 _P.S. As a non-native english speaker, any grammar/orthography tips you may have are welcome!_


	2. Chapter 2 Fate

**Disclaimer:** RWBY and all its characters are property of Rooster Teeth, and the intend of this is just to entertain.

 _Man, I can't believe it took me this long to finish this, I'm really sorry guys! Really long month and I didn't feel like writting. But! Chapters 10 and 11 have been a blessing! And after that, I think I finally got my BB hype back and I'm ready to rock xD_

 _Also, to the Prompt Anon, is so awesome to see you here! i wasn't sure if you could find the story so you really made my day :D just like all reviews did, thanks everybody for your support! And let's get this bees_

* * *

 **Fate**

The night passed slow and frustrating, with half of her mind full of thoughts and memories about The Girl —, as her brain had already started calling her —, and her brunette companion, and the other half trying to talk herself into going back to the park next day, just in the vague hope to see her again.

It was ridiculous, and she knew it. Chances that the blonde would drop again to skip rocks at the pond or just hang out at the park were not null, but they were still slim. And even if she did appeared, what did she planned to do? Would she talk to her? Maybe just keep staring at her from afar? Or maybe she would just try to draw her again, given that her inspiration seemed to like her so much?

 _Whatever,_ it was still a ridiculous idea. Besides, she had other things to do. She had to go see professor Goodwitch to discuss which classes she would be taking for her first semester, and she probably should use the chance to walk around the campus and make sure she knew where everything was located. And contrary to the day before, she had a work shift to attend to.

And she needed to that work. College life was not cheap, and even if she had found quite the deal with her apartment room, it was just a small part of everything she needed to pay for. She of course knew that her parents would be happy to help her with it, but they already had done more than enough by paying for her tuition, and therapy sesions.

Yeah, forgetting about going to the park definitely was the sensible thing to do. And she hated every minute of it.

"You'd been awfully quiet today. And I mean, even for normal Blake quietness."

The black-haired girl blinked in confusion, raising her eyes to meet a couple of sky blue ones that seemed to smile at her with how shiny their amused gleam was. In the short weeks she had known him she had learnt that Sun was always too happy, and while any other time she probably would have tried to be nice to him, she just didn't feel in the mood.

"I don't know what you're talking about," she said dryly, averting her golden eyes from his. Trying to make herself look busy she passed a cloth over the surface of one of the counters and the coffee machine she had already cleaned twice, hating the fact that it was a dead hour in an already slow day.

"C'mon, you haven't said more than eight words since our shift started. And half of those were the 'good mornings' when Neptune and I came in," he pointed at the blue-haired cashier standing just behind them, who only shruged with an apologetic smile.

"He's right actually. Is something bothering you Blake? Something went wrong with your class schedule?"

It was an easy way out, and Neptune presented it with so little care that it would have been stupid not to take it. "Appart from the fact I have to take math and science way too early in the morning, I guess it could've been worse. At least I still have some good classes at the end of the day."

"Yeah, first semesters are always harder. Sucks not having taken enough APs, huh?" He rolled his eyes, seemingly content with the answer and with Blake's slight nod of fake agreement.

The noise of the entry bell announcing their first client in the last hour cut the conversation. Neptune went back to the register, and she put down the cloth to go make their order and distract herself before her brain went back to trying to take her to the park again.

Even though it was already too late for that.

"I still think there's something else bothering you," Sun leaned his hip against the counter where she has preparing the drinks. "You have this expression like you're angry at yourself or something."

It was something like that, she was more frustrated. "Don't look too much into it," she rolled her eyes, taking the two cups to the front counter and trying to ignore her brain reasoning that her shift ended early enough on weekends to get to the pond before twilight and she probably would have time to do another picture if the girl was there.

"Hey, I just remembered is payday!" Sun appeared by her side again in just a second. "You still want to go shopping for the rest of your school supplies after work?"

 _Not really, I'm making plans with myself to go draw the beautiful girl I aparently have a crush on._ "Yeah! We should do that," her nod was a little too fast, startled by her own realization. "I promised right?" And her smile was slightly tense, but not enough for Sun to notice. Probably it was because he was too ecstatic with her response, and maybe it was better that way.

* * *

At the end of the day, she hadn't go to the park. She had done everything else in her to-do list, and even had a good time shopping with Sun. She wasn't dumb enough not to notice that he probably liked her, in a non-platonic way, and while she wasn't interested she usually enjoyed his company, specially in days where she didn't want to think.

And she had made a great job not thinking that afternoon, an _almost_ perfect job actually, with just a moment of weakness that took the form of a way-too-expensive set of drawing charcoals and another one of dry pastels that now rested in front of her over the table. Both of them had been bought with the excuse of the art classes she would be taking, but with the real intention of trying to get a better drawing of the sunshine girl next time... If she at least saw her again.

Yeah, she was pathetic that way aparently.

"Hey Blake, did you got everything I asked you for dinner?"

Her golden eyes went to the closing front door of the aparment, where her brunette roommate was leaving her keys and purse on the small cabinet next to the door before walking towards her to leave her camera on the table. Velvet was around three years ahead from her at college, but with Blake having started late they were roughly around a year apart in age. She had cinnamon-colored bunny ears and a heavy menagerian accent which Blake found relaxing, and if she had to describe her in one word, she probably would go for _sweet._

"Yeah, I even cut the carrots and mushrooms, they're on the purple bowl," she replied pointing at one of the counters. She wasn't very good at the cooking thing, but she at least could help with that.

"Thank you, I'll get the rest going then."

Blake nodded as the brunette walked past her, her ears twitching slightly to follow her gentle humming as she seasoned the food and set up a pot on the stove. Velvet never made her talk more than necessary, something she usually apreciated but now it gave her too much time to overthink again, toying with a pastel between her fingers.

"I have my schedule ready," she found herself saying after no more than two minutes. "I did what you told me and tried to get all my classes after 9 AM."

"That's good, you'll thank me later," Velvet smiled, stirring the pot before covering it and going to sit in the chair across from Blake's. She inmediatly noticed the two art sets on the table, a brow raising impressed. "These are some really nice brands," she stated, just out of curiosity. She was more focused in digital photography, but of course she knew her fair share about drawing.

"Yeah, I... There's something I wanna try to draw with them," Blake shruged.

"Oh?" The bunny faunus raised an eyebrow.

Blake nodded. Shedidn't really need to tell her, but talking to Velvet was easy, so she walked to the sofa and picked up her sketchbook, doubting for just a second before showing her drawing, her lower lip trapped between her teeth.

"Hey, this is really good!" Was Velvet's first impression, causing Blake's cheeks to feel warmer. "It's the first time I see one of your works. Who's the girl?"

"Well, that's the thing... I don't know," she felt her ears flattening down, her eyes fixed to her fidgetting hands. "I went to the park that's near Beacon yesterday, I was trying to get some inspiration but I couldn't come up with anything for hours. Then, I heard a sound and when I looked up... She was there. And she looked so much like art that I just needed to draw her," she shruged, a slight smile on her lips at the memory. "After I finished I thought I should go and talk to her, but there was this other girl with her and they seemed close so... I didn't, and they left soon after."

The cat girl sighed, throwing her head back to stare at the ceiling. "It kinda feels like a bad joke you know? I just got here, school hasn't even started, and I already picked interest in some random non-aviable girl who I've never talked to," her eyes closed, tired, and her arms crossed tightly as if she was feeling cold. "And even better, she's a human."

"Hey, not all humans are bad. And you didn't even talk to her so you can't know for sure about her," Velvet gave an encouraging squeeze to her shoulder as she went to check the pot. "You also can't really know if she isn't aviable just like that."

"Sometimes you can," oh, she was always the rain cloud on the sky, specially in her own parties. "They really seemed to have something."

"Did they kissed? Or held hands?"

"...Just when the other girl helped her to stand up. Then she got her arm around her shoulders, and they looked like they were laughing."

"Well, then I still think there's a chance they're just friends or something like that," the older girl gave her a gentle wink. "I think you should try to talk to her at least once before drowning in a glass of water."

"I don't even think I'm gonna see her again."

"Well, those art supplies you bought because you want to keep drawing her make me thing you actually do."

Blake blushed, adverting her eyes awkwardly without knowing how to defend herself. Also, she was still coming to terms with the renewed hope Velvet was giving her.

"Just, try it once Blake" requested the bunny faunus, turning off the stove. "Okay?"

She still took a minute to considera her words, before nodding slowly. "Okay."

"Great, now please come get me some plates so we can eat."

* * *

She really intended to follow Velvet's advice when she dropped at the park next day after her shift at the cafe. A simple black backpack hanging from her shoulder contained her new art suff, and her last drawing was still in the sketchbook under her arm. She had even gone over what she could —, would —, tell her, how to start the conversation, how to bring up the picture and maybe ask her to let her draw another one.

When the pond entered her vision range, the sunshine-haired beauty was already there, and her brunette partner was with her. They looked like they were having fun, both of them with a smal pile of pebbles resting at their sides, idly throwing them while they chatted casually. In a certain moment the blonde seemed to say something that made the shorter girl roll her eyes and push her off, making her fall on back laughing with no shame. And to Blake she looked almost painfully beautiful while she laughed that way.

She couldn't bring herself up to interrupt them, the scene was all a little too intimate —, not necessarily romantic, but too private —, for her to feel like she was allowed to enter the frame. So she did the only thing she could think of and opened up the sketchbook, not hesitating before starting a new picture.

After all, maybe it was just a thing of fate. She had the muse she has been looking for weeks ago, and probably it was for the best to keep her as that.

* * *

Days passed, the couple of weeks before her semester started were gone in the blink of an eye, and she had been left with half of her sketchbook full of drawings of her sunshine model. Some of them were simple black and while silhouttes, and one was even a full colored portrait she had spent all the afternoon of her day off drawing, mixing colors to get the exact shade of blonde of her hair under the sun, and lamenting the fact she wasn't close enough to her to also get the color of her eyes beyond it being some shade of violet. Some of the pictures even featured the brunette girl too, and even if time had made her fairly sure that whatever it was between them wasn't romantic, she still had resigned herself not to try to approach her again.

At that point, it would be weird for sure. Even if she had a certain talent to be invisible, she knew they had noticed at least one of two times. They probably hadn't seen much of her given her hunched stance as she drew, but it all came back to how creepy would come for them that the girl who sat across the pond from them with a sketchbook on her knees decided to introduce herself after spending hours making pictures of them without their consent. She had lost her chance.

With that mindset she started classes. Long hours of trying to navigate through the Beacon campus and finding out she hadn't learnt the distribution as well as she thought, and that college environment could be fairly overwhelming when you were used to be by yourself for most of the day. By the end of her second day, she was already exhausted.

She entered the Creative writting classroom just before class started and picked a seat at the back of the room, dumping her backpack at her side and taking out a notebook already full of doodles on the cover and back. She was bad at taking notes in classes, she always had been, but she at least should try, right?

A sigh came out from her mouth as the tip of the pen idly tapped the lower lip, a hand supporting her chin and her eyes turned to the door without really looking anything until the professor entered the room.

"Belladonna, Blake."

She barely raised her hand when her name was read from the list after just one of two before her, and followed with her eyes as other hands did the same and some voices even called "here", she liked to take note of the silhouttes she could recognize from other classes and her visual memory was good enough to let her do it. It was good enough to cause her heart to skip a beat when she noticed the golden mane near the front of the room.

It was her, _the girl._ The protagonist of all her drawings from the last month was sitting mere ten feet away from her, with her head resting on one of her hands and a lock of her hair being curled around her finger.

"Xiao Long, Yang."

The teacher raised her eyes to look at the blonde's raised hand, no noise coming out from her mouth, and he stared at her for a second too long before nodding and putting away the list, standing up to start the class.

Blake didn't listen to a single word of what he said, and didn't take any notes either. But she did draw the back of a silhoutte with long, slightly curly hair on the corner of her page.

 _Yang Xiao Long_ , that was her name. After weeks of watching her from afar, not daring to go and meet her, she suddenly had what felt like a perfect chance. She suddenly couldn't find a reason not to try. They were classmates after all, so they talking would be normal, the right thing to do even. She could approach her after class and just introduce herself, no need to mention her drawings of anything weird. It was perfect.

The bell ringed, the professor gave an asigment that Blake quickly write down on her notebook before shoving it into her bag and hanging it on her shoulder, noticing just then how the blonde seemed to be taking her time before leaving the classroom, letting everyone else pass by her side without even looking at them.

The part of Blake's brain that still worked found all that slightly odd, the girl's aura just seemed a little too bright for her to be... Shy? But she didn't dwell on it, waiting for the room to clear out also played in her favour. Professor Lionheart was the last to leave after giving both of them a look from over his shoulder, and just then Blake decided to stand up and walk towards the blonde, hugging her sketchbook tightly to control her nerves.

"Hey," she said just loud enough to be heard over the hall's hustle.

The girl gave a small jump in her seat before turning towards her, eyes wide open. Her eyes were a very clear shade of lilac, big and expresive, and her faceshape was soft and delicate. She was even more beautiful than what she had thought. Even if she looked like a deer in the headlights, frozen and for some reason, panicked.

"I'm Blake, Blake Belladonna. You're Yang, right?" She tried again, confused about her reaction. Nothing changed, she didn't move an inch or said anything just stared blankly at her. The black-haired girl started to feel nervous. "I... I'm sorry, did I said something wr-?"

"Yang!" A high-pitched voice called from the door, and soon after a head with short brown hair took a peak inside. "Are you ready to go ho-? Oh!" She stopped midsentence, blinking a couple times with her silver eyes on Blake before realization lit her expression. "You're the girl from the park! The artist!"

Blake felt the blood leaving her head so fast she almost felt drowsy, a heavy feeling settling in her stomach. "I-I... I..." Her palms felt sweaty, her cat ears were trying to flatten back inside the bow so hard it was almost painful, and her mind had been stripped of any reasonable thought as the urge to run away gripped her gut. "...I'm sorry, I gotta go."

So she did, taking advantage of the brunette's confusion to pass next to her at the door and start running down the hall, ignoring the _"Wait!"_ She heard her scream as she flew down the stairs. No thinking in that moment about what she had left behind.

* * *

 _Tbc~_

 _I'll be honest, I'm probably gonna rewrite the start of this chapter at some point, when I get a better grip with writting Sun probably xD seriously more than half the problema I had with this chapter was trying to get him right_

 _anyway, leaving that aside, I hope you like the chapter and it had worth the wait! We got some kind of first interaction between the bees and also introduced a few side characters, pretty basic but necessary, and things are gonna get more interesting next chapter, promise!_

 _I'm gonna try not to take so long again, i'm already excited to write next chapter so that should help a little ;D until then, have fun guys!_


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